Spring is blooming ... and so is this baby blanket!

Just finished this beautiful baby blanket for a dear friend who just gave birth last week to a gorgeous baby girl.  

Spring is Blooming is knit with Dale of Norway's Falk (a washable, sport-weight wool) but could also be done in a sport weight cotton!  The design starts in the center with eight stitches and you keep working in circles, increasing as you go (and some of those increases are cleverly hidden within the lace panels) until you end up with 280sts and a 30" diamater baby blanket.


Spring is indeed Blooming!  


NOTE:  You must be able to knit from charts for this bounteous bloom.  


If you'd like to download the pdf of this design, here's the link:

Spring is Blooming ($7.50) 

or check out all my designs at my Ravelry store ....

Enjoy the journey

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs

bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Birds in Flight ... a cowl ... a headband ... a classic!

 

Birds in Flight cowl/headband knit in Spring Gate Farm's Lace-Fingering Weight Cashmere .... available for instant download for $5.00.  This 27-stitch lace pattern is easy to memorize ... making the knitting a joy to do, especially since the yarn is 2-ply 100% cashmere ...

When only the best will do .... CASHMERE!

Enjoy the journey

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Freebie .... thought you'd enjoy seeing

Here's a design I just uploaded to my Ravelry pattern store:

The pattern is on as a free download .... and should be available soon through Shokay's Design Circle ... this sample is knit in Shokay's gorgeous Yak/Bamboo blend called "Orient" ...

Check out this and my other patterns (some free, some for sale) on Ravelry!

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Swaps: Victorian Stocking

Well, I've been busy working on all those swaps for which I signed up! I was able to get to the Post Office yesterday (in spite of BamBam being sick as a dog!) and sent off all the swap packages.

Here's the one that went to Canada for the stocking swap organized by Nissa over at Simple Gifts:

Of course, a stocking wouldn't be any fun without filling -- so Celestial Seasonings tea and Chocolate filled it to the brim! I hope my partner likes it as much as I enjoyed designing and making it!

Another just finished project ...

I have a real thing for the new look of shrugs/capelets/partial ponchos .... whatever you want to call them. They look so chic and sophisticated! Here's one I just finished -- this one is going to be donated to the Spring Event fund-raiser at Bishop Machebeuf High School.

Here's a close-up of the really easy eyelet pattern on the bodice -- the edges are a simple eyelet rib. This capelet/shrug is knit from the neck down, so it goes quite quickly.

So what do you do ...

... when you have a hand-knit garment that you just don't/can't/won't wear anymore but is too precious to just toss in the give-away pile?

This mural, "The Blue Ridge Parkway", started out life as a shawl. I made it when we were in Austria. It is a sampler of some Austrian knitted lace patterns that I wanted to remember. After wearing this shawl for an audience with Pope John Paul II in 2002, I just couldn't wear it anymore -- after all, it would be a third class relic if he ever is canonized!

So, when we got back to the States later that year, my dear FIL made a frame to its exact dimensions and hammered in a gazillion black finishing nails and I just stretched it right onto the frame. I do occasionally take it off the frame to freshen it up, but then it goes right back on the frame for drying/hanging!

Sweater for those not-so warm days wearing a sleeveless dress

Here's a sweater I finished in time to wear on Easter. I call it "Edelweiss" It's knit with Coats&Clark "TLC Cotton Plus" -- a worsted weight cotton/acrylic that knits up beautifully. The lace patterns -- a variation of fan-and-feather and a slanted eyelt -- are both from traditional Austrian knitwear. So the pewter edelweiss buttons seemed especially appropriate!

I like the hip-skimming length and the open-to-underarm cardi feel of it. This sweater is perfect for a cooler-than-you-thought spring or summer evening to wear over a sleeveless dress or top! Or to those places that frown on bare shoulders.

Let me know what you think. I thought I'd see if Coats would like to buy the design.....

Lucy Maud Montgomery and Knitting

From Anne of Green Gables (pg 133-134)

Sophia Sloane offered to teach her (new teacher, Anne) a perfectly elegant new pattern of knit lace, so nice for trimming an apron.